It is crucial for operators in various types of crafts, such as an aircraft, lunar lander or submarine, to be aware of the conditions of the space surrounding the craft, i.e. situational awareness. For example, modem aircraft attempt to help improve the operator's situational awareness by providing the operator with information on either a heads-up display (HUD) or a look-down display. A typical display depicts many forms of relevant information, such as navigational data, weather data, terrain data, and radar, as well as other important information regarding the craft itself.
One important aspect of situational awareness is to be aware of obstacles which pose a threat to the craft. This is particularly true for aircraft during take-offs and landings or other low-altitude operations and even more so in low-visibility conditions. Some displays depict information on obstacles in or near the craft's travel path. However, many of these displays create a problem of clutter on the display which interferes with the visibility of other primary information presented on the display. Obstacle data should be presented in such a way that it will provide timely awareness of the height, location and distance of possible threats without distracting from the other primary information on the display.
Another disadvantage of current obstacle displays is that they do not provide the operator with easy access to relational positions and depth perception of the possible threats in the craft's travel path. In order to successfully avoid the obstacles, the operator needs to know where the obstacles are in relation to each other and to the craft. Often times, the operator will have a short response time in which to determine how to best avoid obstacles. Therefore, it is advantageous to reduce the time and effort required by current obstacle displays for the operator to obtain the needed relational position information.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for an obstacle display which will improve an operator's easy access to obstacle information regarding distance, height, and relational position of obstacles without distracting from other primary information.